


hello to you

by nigiyakapepper



Category: Cardfight!! Vanguard
Genre: Alternate Universe, Body Horror, M/M, Plants, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 06:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1972239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nigiyakapepper/pseuds/nigiyakapepper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's an odd summer. Naoki grows leaves and finds love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hello to you

**Author's Note:**

> Not entirely sure what drove me to write this. 17's enthusiasm for plants most likely. I'm pretty sure this is better drawn than written, but I wanted to try anyway.
> 
> (I sincerely apologize for typos)

His palm starts itching a week ago.

At first he doesn’t think anything of it, and chalks it up to luck with money or some sort of superstition, until his reddened skin swells into an innocuous little bump.

“God, it looks gross,” Naoki says forlornly, having given up on summer homework and taken to staring at his offending left hand. The small lump is shiny and tempting, so he gently pokes it with his pen.

It tickles.

“Hehe…”

He pokes it again.

“Hehehe.”

Childhood friend and long time roommate Shingo squints at him through his glasses, less out of nearsightedness and more out of annoyance with a dash of incorrigible curiosity. “Can you please go back to doing your homework.”

“Agh!” Naoki yells at the heavens, pushing against the study desk and traveling to Shingo’s side of the room on his swivel chair. “It’s the first day of summer! Who the hell does homework on the first day of summer?!”

“I do!” Shingo yells back, trying to ignore him. “I have to! Or else we’ll end up cramming again like we do every year—“ and when Naoki’s rolling about persists, he adds, “We’re helping out at uncle’s store again. We gotta finish!”

His friend squeaks to a halt. “The bakeshop? Are you sure he’s gonna let me work there this time? I’ve got a thing,” and Naoki shoves his hand in Shingo’s face. “Might be contagious.”

Shingo sighs and gingerly takes Naoki’s hand in his to examine the skin around the bump. “You sure it’s not a boil?”

“Doesn’t hurt like one.”

“…you’ve had a boil before?”

“Yep, on my butt,” Naoki grins and Shingo rolls his eyes.

Gently, he presses the lump, looking at the redhead for a reaction.

“Doesn’t hurt.”

Shingo presses down harder and feels it before Naoki emits a yelp of pain and surprise—something thin but hard and pointy buried in the depths of his skin, like a thorn.

“Ow! What the hell?”

“There’s something in there!”

“I know there is!”

“Shouldn’t you get that checked?!”

“’S why I’m asking you!”

“You haven’t asked me anything!”

They stare at Naoki’s hand in mild terror before its own speaks in a soft voice.

“…looks like a nipple.”

“ _Oh god damn it!_ ” Shingo throws his hands (and Naoki’s) up in the air and storms out the room, leaving Naoki to peals of laughter and helpless gasps of “hand boob.”

In the next three days, however, the joking quickly dies. Small bumps of various sizes and prominence sprout all over Naoki’s body. They  poke into his back when he’s sleeping, they make the smooth expanse of his shoulders spike and ache with a mysterious weight. There are even bumps on his chest, just over his heart, large enough to see through a shirt. Naoki feels self-conscious.

“I should really get this checked, shouldn’t I,” he tells Shingo, turning about in front of the mirror in their bedroom, clad in Doraemon boxers.

“I’m more surprised how you haven’t,” his friend answers, pausing homework to stare at him mildly horrified. “Are you feeling okay? You’re starting to look like a blowfish.”

Naoki sighs, not taking his eyes off his reflection. “I…” He makes a face. “I honestly don’t think this is a bad thing, like,” he shrugs, struggling to get the right words out. “Like I don’t feel this is something bad.”

Shingo ogles at him. “Seriously? Are you listening to what you’re saying? Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”

“I’m looking right now! I know it’s weird that this isn’t weird to me!”

“Stop panicking!”

“You’re making me panic!”

“Shut up! The way you look is freaking me out!”

The comical silence that rings out the room is interrupted by the softest, gentlest crack, like edamame breaking open. And at the same time, Naoki feels a sharp, needle-thin tug in the palm of his hand.

They both look down at his oldest wound.

“…ah.”

“It’s a plant.”

A small, bright green sapling meekly pushes its way out of his skin, a dainty, two-leafed thing that twitches slightly either from life or the shaking of Naoki’s hand.

A plant.

Very much a plant.

Growing on his left hand.

Wordlessly, Shingo reaches out to pluck it.

“Hey—OW. Don’t!” Naoki yanks his hand away, shielding it with the other like a candle from the wind.

His best friend ogles at him some more like he’s grown a second head (or a plant in his hand) and makes a funny noise in his throat.

“P-plant.”

Naoki looks at his hand again. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

And Shingo explodes. “We’re going to the hospital _right now!_ ”

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

“Perfectly healthy!” the elderly doctor cheerfully says, looking at the results of Naoki’s CT scan like they are old family photographs. “Without a doubt, those—“ he gestures to the small lumps pushing out of the Naoki’s skin. “—are plants growing inside of you. But I can safely say they’re harmless. In fact, if we try to pull them out, you would be in more trouble.”

Naoki and Shingo exchange looks and the cheerful old doctor shifts through the results once more.

“See here,” he continues, showing them a few images. “Most of the roots are embedded in your muscles. Some are even in your heart. My advice is to let them grow out, live and die as plants do, and your body will return to normal again.”

Naoki makes a ‘not bad’ face, nodding. Shingo nods as well. They thank the doctor and leave his clinic, mollified.

“I’ll have to tell uncle you can’t be the one baking.”

“Can’t be the one to do the icing or designs either huh…”

The cash register it is.

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

A little over a week in and summer is in full swing. The bakeshop is bustling with life from the first hour salarymen and office ladies pick up coffee and pastries to go, to parents picking up loaves or rolls for breakfast, to friends meeting for summer escapades and sharing cooler sweets, to business people meeting clients over lunch, to couples buying tea and cakes to share after dinner.

“My, my Nao-chan! You’re looking quite good these days! Something happen?”

“Haha! Whatever does that mean?” Naoki laughs as he rings up five precise lattes and sugar glazed croissants for a gaggle of elderly ladies who frequent the store.

“Oh, I know! You’re in love!”

They titter excitedly at the prospect.

“You must tell your Baa-chans who it is!”

“I wish I knew who it was too,” Naoki smiles and bids them a good day.

Shingo joins him at the counter, carrying a large tray of colored pastries.

“Still holding up?” he asks, refilling the display rack with practiced ease.

“Somehow. The ladies dig me,” Naoki answers with a grin, rolling his shoulders, plants on them like antlers moving with him. Since the doctor’s examination, all of the bumps have already opened and from them emerged branches and leaves, elegantly twisting upward as plants do, young, shiny leaves turning dark and soft green stems turning a crisp, light beige.

They sprung from his back, his head, his neck, his hands, even his heart (which if you hold the particular branch, you can feel the wood pulse in time with his heartbeat). His shirt had crudely cut out holes to let the plants through.

All in all, Naoki made a rather impressive picture to anyone who saw him.

“Did you find out what you’re growing exactly?” Shingo asks him, entertaining a few orders for single drinks and pastries.

“The florist across the street said they might be azaleas,” Naoki says, looking thoughtfully up at the canopy above him.

“You mean the same as the vase right beside you?”

“Huh?” He turns to see there is indeed a beautiful arrangement of pink-streaked, white azaleas in a sleek, glass vase beside the cash register. The leaves look the same as his.

“Great, I’m assimilating into the display.”

Shingo laughs. “A walking, talking extension of the flower vase. Wonder when you’ll grow flowers too.”

Naoki snorts. “I highly doubt that.” His friend returns to the kitchen and the café bell jingles merrily, welcoming new customers.

“Woah, what’s will all the leaves?” asks Katsuragi Kamui, coming up to the counter.

Behind him trail Kai Toshiki and Miwa Taishi, who stop dead when they see him, the latter breaking into a smile.

“Yo, Ishida!” Miwa greets. “You’re looking fresh. In love?” Beside him, Kai moves to examine the pastries and cakes on display.

Naoki groans. “Why does everyone say that? I sprouted leaves out of my head, and unless I missed a memo, no I’m not in love.”

“Got a crush recently, at least?”

“Your mom,” Naoki deadpans, only mildly puzzled when Miwa gives Kai a look and the other shrugs “If you aren’t going to order anything, get out.”

“Ishida!” barks the manager from the kitchen. “Don’t be rude to the customers!”

“Yeah!” Kamui parrots. “Don’t be rude to customers!” and then he turns to Kai and points at a slice of roll cake. “Buy me that.”

“No.”

“C’mon!”

“Why would I.”

“You lost our bet.”

“What bet.”

“The bet to see if Izaki-senpai would win with a deck I built against Make-umi with a deck you built.”

“I didn’t make that bet, Miwa did. Make him buy you cake.”

They are all Vanguard buddies, friends from the local card shop. He, Shingo, Kai, and Miwa all attend the same high school. Kamui as well, trailing two years behind them.

The group settles for ordering cold teas and a slice each of three different cakes. It’s not a very busy hour and the manager relieves Shingo and Naoki of work to join their friends.

“Thanks uncle!” Shingo calls, sliding onto the squashy sofa and laying down a warm place of buttered blueberry waffles. “On the house.”

There’s a cheer and everyone digs in.

"Man,” Miwa says. “To think we’d be college students in a couple of weeks.”

“Doubt it’d be any different though,” Shingo remarks. “We’re all going to the same university.”

“Ren’s transferring in,” Kai says, eating a large bit of cake and they all whistle at the news.

“Suzugamori Ren?” Naoki asks incredulously. “That creep back in middle school?”

Kai snorts and Shingo utters a, “Hey! He wasn’t a creep—“

“—he ambushed me in a bathroom stall to play Vanguard.”

“Eccentric then.”

“Hey Ishida-senpai,” Kamui interrupts. “If we snapped off a branch of yours, would it bleed.”

“Don’t even try—“

Snap.

There’s a beat of silence before a chorus of yells jolts the quaint establishment.

“Don’t die!” Kamui.

“I’m not dying!” Naoki.

“Put it back!” Shingo.

“I’m trying!” Kamui again, trying to stick back the broken twig to the branch with as much success as, well, sticking a broken twig back to a tree branch.

Miwa has buried his face in Kai’s shoulder, muffling raucous peals of laughter and Kai himself calmly continues to consume cake, if not for a small smile of amusement gracing his face.

Not a minute later, the manager is scolding them and stations Naoki and Shingo back to their posts, muttering, “How do I put up with you kids every year…”

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

“It’s really a plant, huh,” Shingo says, examining the branch they took home as a souvenir. It’s evening and they’re both back at the apartment they share, having dropped by the super for groceries. Naoki is washing lettuce leaves in the sink.

On one of them is a fat, green caterpillar, around three inches long.

“Hey lil guy!” Naoki says, clearly amused and Shingo comes over the look.

“That’s gross,” he concludes. “Is it alive?”

“Yeah it is,” Naoki replies, prodding it with a chopstick. The fat thing confusedly lumbers onto it “Be a shame to kill him. He can live on me.”

Shingo frowns at him and moves to get soup boiling. “It’ll eat you alive.”

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

And it does.

The caterpillar, lovingly named Fat Fat, has an impressively voracious appetite, cleanly munching away at all of Naoki’s leaves during the day, crawling down to nestle in between branches to sleep at night, dropping caterpillar turds in between.

Shingo’s uncle doesn’t really care. “Just don’t get any on the food. And keep the counter clean.”

Most customers find it adorable. “So cute! So fat!” they say when they spot it amongst Naoki’s half bitten leaves.

Shingo is fascinated, emerging from the kitchen every now and then to look for Fat Fat and watch it nibble endlessly on leaves. “Do you think it’s going to turn into a butterfly? Because that’s pretty amazing!” and during one other time. “From the way it looks like, I think it’s a Dark Cerulean. Have you seen what they’re like when they grow up?”

On most days, Naoki ignores him, choosing to indulge his friend when he goes on tirades about something that captured his interest, but at the suggestion he frowns, not out of annoyance but more of puzzlement. “Why would a butterfly like that be all the way out in the city?”

Shingo opens his mouth, about to retaliate, but closes it again in thought. “Well…people don’t usually sprout plants from their bodies so why can’t southern island butterflies be in the city?”

“Fair point.”

Summer rolls by peacefully (or as peaceful as hours in the bakeshop can get.) And very soon, Fat Fat’s enthusiastic munching is replaced by the furious weaving of a curious little cocoon in which to sleep off the rest of its caterpillar days.

“Looks like a turd,” Naoki says, trying to look at Fat Fat’s cocoon out of the corner of his eye.

“Stop saying turd, you’re grossing out our customers,” Shingo says, concentrating on placing a fancily decorated cake in the display.

“Untrue, they miss the guy,” his friend replies, ringing up orders for a bunch of high school girls shopping for school supplies.

“How long is she going to sleep?” one of them asks, amidst a flurry of giggling.

Naoki shrugs. “I don’t really know. Come back to the shop and see,” he gives them a wink and they move away as a giggling, whispering mass.

Shingo watches the whole exchange with bemusement. “Time sure flies, huh.”

“Another summer well spent cooped up in a bakeshop.”

“Oh quit complaining, you appreciate it.”

“Yeah, yeah. You know I do. Though I honestly wouldn’t know what to do with the money I’ve earned. Buy some rares?”

“Don’t you dare,” Shingo shoots him a glare.

“A car then?”

“Won’t need it. Why else did we get an apartment near the university for.”

Naoki sighs. It’s a slow hour. Customers have been served and they’re both idling. Shingo looks at him.

“What’s up?”

He scratches his nose. “I don’t know. Something’s wrong with me. I’ve been feeling funny for a while now.”

“Y’mean apart from,” Shingo gestures to his entire leafy visage. “…how you are right now?”

“Leave the plant out of it,” Naoki says, hitting him lightly. “But…come to think of it, that might be the reason.”

“Is it hurting?”

“No, more like. I’m feeling restless? Or worried.”

Shingo shrugs, but the look on his face expressed a piqued interest with a dash of concern. “Not like you to be.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Did the florist say anything?”

His shoulders roll, branches and Fat Fat’s cocoon stirring slightly at the motion. “They just wondered why it wasn’t growing any flowers. Not that anyone’s expecting it to really, but that got me bothered.” A pause. “Not to mention Kai and Miwa being all sneaky and giggly about my situation. Like they know something about it.”

“A giggly Kai,” Shingo hums. “Not convincing.”

Naoki tsks. “You know what I mean. They know something.”

“About your plant thing?”

“Yeah!”

But before Shingo could ask and before Naoki could elaborate, he feels a tug inside him, pulling at the nerves under his skin, causing his spine to tingle and his heart to thump a beat harder. Naoki looks to the window just in time to see someone pass by lacy curtains.

Someone bedecked in large, vividly blue flowers.

“Naoki?”

Like sunflowers magnetized toward the sun, he follows the someone, man possessed, emerging from behind the counter and out the café.

The flowery head isn’t far down the street. Another person is beside them (him? her?), a tall blonde lady with a fierce aura, but Naoki doesn’t care.

“Excuse me!” he calls, but of course it’s unheeded. How should he call them? You with the flowers? What if he’s entirely mistaken and it’s just a person with a bouquet? Normal, unassuming person with a bouquet. Honestly, how fat a chance is it to find someone in the same predicament as him?

Unaware of his own body, Naoki had caught up to the person (shorter than him by a few inches, male despite the slender set of his shoulders just past the array of large petals—azaleas—he notes) and tapped him on the back (much to the surprised annoyance of his blond friend)

“Excuse me, I—“

The boy turns around, and Naoki sucks in a breath.

He’s beautiful.

Unnatural, tantalizing blue azaleas elegantly bloom from the pale skin of his neck, nape and arms, framing his smallish face, bringing out the brightness of his wide eyes.

All very, very blue.

The boy is surprised as well (more than from a simple tap to the shoulder from a stranger, but Naoki doesn’t notice.)

“I…um,” he begins lamely. “Promo.”

Surprise morphs into confusion.

“Our shop. Bakeshop…Café. It has a summer promo. On cakes.” So blue. “I just thought you’d might…like one.”

“Oh.” The boy finally speaks, soft but clear. “Of course.” He takes the business card Naoki offers with trembling hands. “Thank you!”

They walk away, the blonde friend amused now than annoyed. Naoki barely hears her whisper, “That makes what, two people who hit on you today? Ren will have a field day when he find out.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“He owes me a coffee. Barely a week in the new city and you’re already irresistible!”

“Kourin please!”

“Naoki!”

Shingo snaps him out of his reverie. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Did…did you see that kid?!” Naoki nearly explodes, grabbing his friend by the shoulders and shaking him, before frantically pointing to the direction the flowery boy had gone. “He had flowers! He was growing flowers! And they’re azaleas! My azaleas!”

Shingo gives him a look.

“No way.”

“Yes way!”

“And? What did you say? What did he say?”

“That…” Naoki’s voice rasps as he falters, realizing how stupid it was. “We had a promo at the shop. Discounted cakes or something like it. I don’t even know if he likes cakes!”

Shingo gapes at him. “Are you stupid. We don’t have a promo like that.”

“We’ll y’gotta make one! Tell uncle! C’mon, my life depends on it!”

“He’s not gonna listen to us at all if we don’t get back to the shop, pronto!”

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

Sayonara Summer, the promo is called, and offers discounted pastries, drinks, and cakes to incoming students. It's surprisingly successful. Shingo’s uncle is never prouder.

“Heeeeh,” Miwa says around his straw. “So you saw someone who was growing flowers?” He sounds less enthused than Naoki expected, but the sparkle in his grey eyes is none to be missed. “And?”

“Fingers crossed he comes by the store,” Naoki says, cheek resting on his plant-free palm. “Doubt it, though. Not with the way I sounded.” His forehead meets the table with a sad thud. There's a 'sshhfff' as his leaves follow suit and Miwa moves their food away.

“Even if he doesn’t come to the store,” Kai offers, much to the surprise of his friends. “You’ll meet.”

“How’re you sure,” Naoki says, looking up with little effort, chin resting on the table, arms dangling from his sides.

Kai points to Fat Fat’s cocoon with a cheesecake-y fork. “How long till she's out?”

“About a week? Why? What does Fat Fat have to do with this?”

Kai shrugs, having finished his piece, and Miwa steps in. “She’ll help you find the way,” he says with a wink.

Shingo looks utterly confused, and Naoki sits up indignantly. “Both of you _do_ know something!”

Noise erupts from their little table.

“What?”

“Tell me!”

“No! That takes the fun out of it!”

“What fun?!”

“Shut up and just let things happen!”

Naoki scratches his head in frustration and a few leaves get shaken off in the process. “You two better explain yourself when this is all over!”

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

Fat Fat struggles out of her cocoon for several days, covered in a curious thin film she sheds slowly, steadily, carefully, uncrumpling gentle wings until she can spread them wide before folding them peacefully on one of Naoki’s dark leaves, like hands in patient prayer.

“How much did you earn,” Naoki asks Shingo, trying to lean over his friend’s shoulder to see what’s in his paycheck (which is honestly just a thin brown envelope with cash.)

“None of your business,” Shingo mutters, evading him like he was maneuvering a particularly difficult level of Mario Kart. He sees Fat Fat stretching elegant blue wings somewhere overhead. “Hey…has it gone anywhere?”

“Fat Fat?” Naoki asks, side-tracked. “Well no…”

“It’s the first day of school tomorrow,” Shingo says. “Something might happen.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to the first day of school.”

“Why on earth would I miss the first day of university tomorrow?”

“Professors don’t attend the first day, dumbass.”

“Says you! We have different courses! Mine could be anal, you don’t know!”

Despite what Naoki says however, he’s excited, not only to see friends, but also to quell a certain thrumming coursing through him. Fat Fat flutters about his leaves, which twitch in response.

That night he dreams of blue.

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

W University teems with life.

Shingo is beside himself with the joy of learning. Naoki stares at him like he’s impossible.

“What is wrong with you?” his friend asks, affronted. “This is college! A new fortress! Our own schedules! How can you not be excited?!”

“Because it’s still school—“ Naoki retorts but gets interrupted by a lively clap to his back.

It’s Kai and Miwa, looking rather refreshing in casual clothes.

“Yo!” Miwa greets, cheerful as always

“Yo,” Naoki returns with a greeting of his own.

Kai looks more annoyed than usual.

“What’s up with him?”

“Crowds,” Miwa explains. “And the lack of coffee. Heard the canteen here is legendary so we’re off to get breakfast. You?”

“Still checking out our rooms. We’ve got lunch free. Do you?” Shingo asks.

“I think so, yeah. Let’s meet!” Miwa replies, bodily pushing an increasingly grumpy Kai toward food.

Naoki feels Fat Fat quietly stir before he sees it fly away.

“Naoki?” Shingo calls but his best friend is no longer there.

His heart once more thumps in his chest. His skin is tingling and his leaves have never looked so bright before. A few feet in front of him, the elegant blue butterfly settles gently on a flower he’s seen only once before.

“Ah.”

“Ah.”

The boy bedecked with flowers looks up, meeting Naoki’s gaze before he smiles.

“Hello,” he says, smile partly hidden in the largeness of his petals.

“Hello,” Naoki replies breathlessly.

The flora stirs.

“My name’s Naoki!” he blurts out. Fat Fat languidly flaps its wings and Aichi laughs.

It’s amazing.

“I’ve never seen anyone growing leaves from them,” he says. “My name is Aichi.”

“Right back at you,” Naoki answers, gaining his sea legs and falling comfortably into step beside him as they make their way to the school building. “I’ve never seen such beautiful flowers.”

“I was scared when they started growing at first, but for some reason, I knew they weren’t bad,” Aichi blushes deeply.

Naoki’s head is spinning. This boy is ridiculously pretty and he really wants to get along with him. “Can,” he yelps a little too loud before calming down. “Can we be friends?”

Aichi looks at him for a moment, surprised, before breaking into another smile like sunshine. “Of course!”

 

*･゜ﾟ･*

 

Miwa and Kai watch from the second floor canteen.

“Remember the time you started growing—what were they?” the blond asks.

“Chrysanthemums,” Kai answers over two slices of toast and a steaming cup of black coffee.

“What a sight we were, huh?”

“Some people couldn’t see them anyway. They all thought you were ‘blooming’ or some other ridiculous thing.”

“We didn’t need to find each other, we were together all the time.”

“Yeah.”

They finish eating and leave, unaware of the Dark Cerulean that flutters away into the warm sky.

**END**


End file.
